My barber has been working to restore this for several years. It belonged to his father. His biggest problem was finding someone to 'correctly' rebuild the magneto.. took two tries. He had some of the chrome redone, but otherwise it's original. Love to see old bikes saved and there are just so many V-twins. He told me yesterday he would be riding it into work today, so I had to swing by for a look. Thought I would post a pic of it. It sounds like a small tractor when idling and apparently it pulls like one too.
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Always liked the Indian 4's..better than the V-twins. Indian bought-out Henderson..which before that was Excelsior..if memory serves me here.
Remember thinking back in the late 50's..that if Indian could figure out a way to cool the in-line 4's better..I'd get one (most of the in-line air cooled 4's were notorious for the rear cylinders over heating on long rides..or in stop and go traffic..which is why police dept's stopped using them after WWII I guess). My Ariel Square Four also would overheat the rear cylinders in hot weather..on long rides.
Then in '68 voila! The Honda transverse in-line 4's came out. One reason I've remained loyal to the Honda brand all these years..is due to Soichiro Honda's vision in rotating the engine 90 degrees (the transverse arrangement) to eliminate so many of the problems with tandem and square 4 designs. Nowadays of course..with liquid cooling..that issue is rendered moot.
Long live 4 cylinder powered motorcycles!
Ichi